Fly screen



March 22, 1938. R. H. HALSTEAD ET AL FLYISCREEN Filed Aug. 20, 1937 Patented Mar. 22, 1938 PATENT OFFICE FLY SCREEN Rolla H. Halstead and Herbert Ferris, Indianapolis, Ind.

Application August 20, 1937, Serial No. 160,036

1 Claim.

flies, mosquitoes, moth millers, and the like to fly toward a light and upon meeting with an obstruction to their progress, such as a window glass or a wire screen, to crawl or move in an upward direction against the obstruction.

The object of our invention is to provide a window or door screen with a wire cloth obstruction to the escape of insects through such openings and to provide a top orifice opening to out of doors to which the wire cloth leads without any change in surface disconcerting the insect, thereby allowing it to escape and speedily ridding the and other insects.

room of all of them.

A further object is to reduce the entrance of dust to the apartment using our invention and more particularly to prevent rain from entering and rain water from running down the outside wall of the house and screen frame from entering through the insect-escape opening and running down on the inside of the screen.

We accomplish the above and other objects which will hereinafter appear, by the means illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is an outside front view of a door screen containing our invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 2-2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is an outside front view of a window screen with'our device; and

Fig. 4 is a detail in cross section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 on a larger scale than that of Fig. 2.

Like characters of reference indicate like parts in the several views of the drawing.

The door and window screens each comprise a rectangular frame, generally divided into areas, which are covered by wire cloth members 5. The stiles 6, of the frame and those rails 1, which occur at the tops of the wire cloth members, have the rabbets 8, at their corners next to the wire cloth, primarily to provide an unobstructed space between the rails and cloth at the upper edges of the cloth for the exit of flies, mosquitoes This rabbeting is preferably continued on the stiles in order to increase the exit to the maximum, the wire cloth being continued across the rabbets and secured therebeyond to the stiles.

The rabbets 8 in the rails 1 preferably have their top walls 9 obliquely formed and extended above their adjacent wire cloth edges sufficiently to provide an opening to the outside for the free escape of insects trapped inthe house by the screen and which will crawl up the inside of the cloth to the opening and from there fly away.

In order not to halt the insects by any change in the surface up which they are crawling, we prefer to carry the wire cloth clear to the discharge opening. This may be by carrying it to a lap This invention is based upon the tendency ofov er the upper edge of a wooden strip 10, or, and

preferably by clamping the hooked edge of the wire cloth between the legs of a sheet metal clamping strip ll, bent U-shape in cross section, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 4.

The remaining edges of the wire cloth members are retained against the stiles and rails of the frame by the usual wooden strips I2 by driving small nails through the strips and cloth into the frame.

The strips l3 above the discharge opening for insects extends outwardly beyond the horizontal strips 10 and H, and therefore beyond the outer surface of the wire cloth, in order to protect the opening from rain, and, more effectively, to keep rain water from entering and running down on the inner side of the screen. To keep the rain water from following the under surface of the strip 13, we form the under side bead 14 along which the water will collect and fall by gravity instead of following an upwardly rising inner surface of the bead.

The screen door may have the usual mullion strip 15 for additional strength.

The wire cloth may be 36 inches in width, more or less, and the distance between the cloth and rails for the escape of insects should be not less than one fourth inch. The holding strips are approximately one half inch wide and those binding the top edges of the wire cloth are so placed with relation to their adjacent rails as to insure the requisite outlet for the insects and strength and durability to the cloth edge at the opening.

The operation of this invention has been described in connection with its structure so that further explanation is unnecessary.

While we have described the preferred form of our invention in detail, it is obvious that many changes are possible without departing from the V spirit of our invention and we therefore do not desire to be restricted to the forms here shown or any more than is required by the following claim.

We claim:

In an insect removing screen, a frame having openings, wire cloth secured at both sides and bottom to the frame, said frame having a cross rail opposite the top edge of the wire cloth rabbeted next to the wire cloth to provide a space for the escape of insects, means for retaining the top' edge of the cloth in given position opposite the cross rail, and a strip secured to the frame above the space having an outer surface in a plane outside of the plane of the cloth, said strip having a bead along its bottom edge next to the outer surface of the strip.

ROLLA H. HALSTEAD. HERBERT FERRIS. 

